As Lyra stands on a cliff overlooking the ocean, a vast shadow begins to rise from the deep. Her hair whipping around her face, she raises the alethiometer, its dials spinning frantically as she tries to make a reading, any reading, about what will happen… but for once, the compass is useless. Pantalaimon whimpers from her coat pocket as the shadow swells, becoming first the size of a great ship, and then a mountain; and then a great wave reaches the shore, smashing the cliff face like a fist and sending fifty feet of rock tumbling into the water. Lyra’s eyes widen, and she looks up, and up, and up, and the Elder One opens its own eyes and fixes her with its ancient gaze from beyond the stars of any world she has known. Lyra drops to her knees and begins to weep as Pantalaimon writhes, withers, and collapses. Cthulhu is no longer fhtagn.

And then Cthulhu steps on her head.

Predicted Winner: Cthulhu

(Cthulhu is a character from the myriad writings of H. P. Lovecraft; Lyra Belacqua is a character from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.)

Okay, I’d love Cthulu to win this battle any day, but in order for this tourney to be even partially interesting, he needs to go to sleep after this next fight… or else it’ll be Aslan vs. Cthulu… as we’re probably all expecting…

Even if Cthulhu’s cosmology doesn’t reign supreme, I’m ot sure it really matters – it’s said that he will end up devouring the entire universe, (assumedly) including his own universe’s equivalent of God, Azathoth.

I would like to register my disappointment that her disadvantages are listed as “little girl” and not as “child” or something. What do you have against girls? Its not as if her chances of winning against CTHULU are decreased because she is female.

I agree, Lyra + Will actually have as good a shot as anybody against Cthulhu. Use the atheliometer to figure out how best to employ the subtle knife so that various parts of Cthulhu end up in different universes, and then use the knife to cut a path into round two.

Lyra is British, and lacks the advantage of either being James Bond* or being written by Charles Dickens.
The only way victory would be LESS possible for her is if she were French.
Cthulhu stomps his way to round two.
*James Bond should have gotten Cthulhu’s place in this tournament, he’s not nearly as game-breaking, and alot of those gadgets were sci-fi back in the 60s and 70s. And James Bond vs. Locke Lamora would have been a far more kickass scenario than Rand vs. Locke.

For all of you who think it will be Cthulhu vs Aslan in the semi-finals you are mistaken. It will be Cthulhu vs Raistlin. Raistlin has to be the most powerful character in this entire tournament. I understand that Aslan is a God, but Raistlin defeated Gods. GODS! with an “s.” As in more than one! Maybe I’m a little bias towards these two characters but I would LOVE to see a Raistlin vs Gandalf matchup in the finals and watch the universe cease to exist!

Despite this seeming to be the biggest shut-out of the first round, it’s seemingly unbalanced pairing has sparked some interesting discussion, so I’m glad it’s here.
First, I want to note two things:
1. People have looked upon Cthulhu and not gone mad. Not immediately anyways. In Lovecraft’s “Call of Cthulhu”, second mate Johanssen sees Cthulhu, even tries to ram him with his ship (as mentioned above by Jenna and Quibby) and manages to maintain his sanity in the long run. His hair turns white, his spirit is from then on broken, and the ship he was on is found floating aimlessly, but still he makes it. It doesn’t sound like much, but I think it’s worth noting.
2. The influence of Cthulhu is strongest on “sensitive”, imaginative people and Lyra is no such person. The main character of Lovecraft’s stories, the inquisitive scientific gentleman is at times accompanied by some bluff authoritative working class fellow, like a police officer. This staunch, unimaginative type is less shaken by what they witness as he does not draw the same dread cosmic connections. And it is specifically noted that Lyra is able to be braver than other children because she is unimaginative. That is to say, she does not go on flights of fancy, imagining and fretting what her enemies might have planned for her.
Also, Cthulhu is not necessarily a god. We just think Cthulhu is a god for the same reason our prehistoric ancestors thought of the sea, sky and moon as gods, because we could not understand them. Cthulhu is like the inky blackness just beyond the limit of the few meager lights humanity has managed to cast upon the world. Does that make Cthulhu less of a threat?
Finally, and I’ve heard this echoed in other threads including this one, this would be more interesting if we took “cage match” less literally. We can’t just assume the powers that be shove two beloved (or despised) literary characters into a room together and say “good luck fellas! We’ll open the door when one of you is dead!” In that case, the character who has strangled a wizard to death, or chopped off a nazi redneck’s head, or shoved a nosy kid out a window before breakfast would just smile and get on with their butcher’s work. It’s more fun to see what the characters could do to each other, given certain circumstances. That does make the outcome kind of arbitrary though.
I know, I know. Tl;dr.

Erm… I mean, when she sees him, wouldn’t she just panic, scream, run around and go crazy? He’s an EVIL, DISGUSTING God (not simply a God) humongous, has dragon wings, tentacles (hihi), and is slimy. Even if she’s unimaginaive, all the slime alone will freak her out… I mean, she is girl, even if she’s a girl from a book.. so I suppose, she’d rather kill herself than get crushed by Cthulhu…
And don’t get me wrong, I’m a girl too, and I have a very clear view of what I would do if I saw Chtulhu – faint. She may have killed God (a very lame thing to do, if you ask me), she has done nothing to prepare her for meeting Chtulhu.. and if he’s informed that he must kill her, won’t he just unleash all he’s got and kill her in a blink?

just need to say, That old Cthulhu isn’t as all powerfull as u guys make him out. Rastlin has killed gods, and Rand was born to defeat the dark one, being of all evil, and face it half the ppl on the lists are god-slaying super humans. Cthulhu just happens to be the god fighting the god-slayers.

You do realize that several of the other characters have actual experience at killing gods? Raistlin Majere has already killed 3 by himself. Not by some super-weapon or luck of the draw, but by force of will alone. Sorry Cthulhu, you’re awesome and all, but you’re just a god.

I won’t even bother to go on about how this match was incredibly one-sided, others have done that already. I would like to point out the fact that some of these characters killing “gods” has no basis being mentioned in this context. What Lyra fought was not in Cthulhu’s league. Hell my mother could have beaten that. Raistlin did not actually defeat anything himself, his whole plan relied on using the gods against themselves. And if Balefire could stop Cthulhu so simply . . .
. . . he wouldn’t be Cthulhu.
You are putting all your hopes in children, old fogies, gods with animal complexes, and madmen. Against something against which reality itself stands little chance. Regarldess of his powerlevel making him a mismatch here, he is the only logical choice for winner of this tournament. Madness is not his only power, I mean, he’s gigantic! I like Conan and all, but can you picture him beating a mountain with a sword?
Here’s my idea: let’s all watch Cthulhu grab one of these combatants like a club and use him/her to bludgeon the rest of them to death as they all gibber helplessly and foam at the mouth.
Men will fall, magic will fail, worlds will die. Game over, man.
Game over.

I agree with you… mostly.
Cthulhu may be a god with power beyond the comprehension of man, but Aslan is capital-”G” God with literal omnipotence.
Cthulhu can beat any other challenger from this list, but when he faces Aslan, the lion wins because of the difference between “powerful” and “all-powerful.”

If Aslan was all-powerful, he wouldn’t have needed the Scooby Gang and their talking gopher to save the day. Sorry, but Cthulhu is going all the way. A few kids and some zoo animals do not trump reality-destroying all consuming madness.
He is, for all intents and purposes immune to death. Hence the couplet oft-quoted in Lovecraft’s works concerning the great Old One: “That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.” It took the greatest power in that entire continuum to lock him away. Note: that “all-powerful” being had not the power to destroy such a being as Cthulhu. They could merely contain him.
Look – I have read almost all of the series on this list to some extent. I admit Aslan is Cthulhu’s best opponent. Everyone else is just a man (or a machine in some cases). No matter their power, men (or women) cannot hope to compete. I’m not saying this just because I happen to like Cthulhu, because I have the Lovecraft collection and all that, I’m saying it because it IS Cthulhu.
He does not care what his opponents have to say. He does not know fear or love or remorse or mercy of any kind. I’m sure he would eat Balefire for breakfast and not even use milk. Those on this list that can ressurect from death would have to die first, and as such would lose the match for it. Logic dictates what I have known all along:
Cthulhu wins.
And then he eats all authors just to be sure.

Actually, Aslan could and would win. The sense of the Narnia books is NOT that Aslan necessarily needed the Pevensies, just that he allowed it to happen that way. Like the Judeo-Christian God he’s so transparently based on, Aslan is a creature of free will. He allows mortals to make choices that govern the future. He guides, he helps, he even ends up doing some of the dirty work when the chips are down, but he doesn’t set anything in motion himself. The characters in the story have to make their own choices.
That is not, necessarily, how he would react to a direct threat to himself, rather than just one of the many universes he apparently watches over. Aslan destroyed one of these at the end of the Chronicles, and all the bad guys perished. Cthulhu has never left our reality, to my knowledge. He was in fact “born” in our reality, traveled through space, and landed on earth. He’s a space alien. He’s not governor over all universes.
At the very least, we have seen that Cthulhu is defeatable. He can get banished, by an “omnipotent power”.
Does anyone, even for a second, doubt that, as imagined by Lewis, that supereminent Christian, Jesus Christ was NOT an omnipotent power?
The only way Aslan goes down is if, once again, he goes up against someone purely good, whom he would hesitate to destroy.

That logic is sort of a trap. Yes, Lewis wrote him to be all powerful and unbeatable. But the same could be said about almost every character on this list. by that logic Rand would be facing off against Gandalf on the strength of fanboys alone.
What I’m saying is that anything that has a mind can lose it. God or no God, everything on this list is vunerable to Cthulhu’s power. Even if he loses to Aslan the chances are that the lion goes mad and eats reality anyways. in that scenario, lose as he might the match, Cthulhu wins the war.
I stand by my conviction. The End is Nigh! The Dreamer awakens! Insert random doomsaying here!

Inaccurate. Rand al’Thor is defeatable. So is Gandalf. Neither was written as an all-powerful character. al’Thor can wield the One Power, but so can many others in his world. The Dark One is far more powerful than Rand. Likewise, Gandalf is a Maiar, not a Valar. He is the equivalent of an angel. Going up against Sauron directly, he would have been crushed. It’s even been suggested that the Witch-King could have defeated him, if he wasn’t distracted by the arrival of the Rohirrim.
All of these characters were written as defeatable, except one. Aslan. That is my point, clear as day. There are no logical fallacies involved. No one else on this list was written as an ultimate power. As such, it’s really a silly idea to include Aslan, granted, but to suggest that he could be beaten through main force by something that was written as vulnerable to such a power is absurd.

You think Cthulhu was written to be defeatable? Not so! He was written so as to not be able to warp and/or devour reality in the first story he was in. No character can step into any battle and use his own story as a trump.
“This is a note from my author, I win. Sorry.”
Therefore in this context Aslan, as much as Cthulhu or any other entry here, is defeatable. And again, vunerable to the Great Old One’s might. I don’t think he could win such a battle.
Is Cthulhu vunerable as well? Yes. Does any other entry on this list possess sufficient power to do such a task? Not in my eyes, no. I wait with relish to see what transpires. Cthulhu also waits with relish. Though I believe he prefers ketchup.

Dude, now you’re just inventing arguments to keep your favorite looking good. Essentially, what your argument is goes something like this:
“Cthulhu’s power from Lovecraft’s books show that he can do this and this and this to anyone. However, by the rules of the contest, we can’t take those other books seriously.”
I say again. Aslan was written, by Lewis, with the quality of omnipotence. Just as Jaime Lannister was written with the quality of blond hair, or Cthulhu was written with the quality of being able to reform himself (but apparently not kill anyone else) after that ship slashed him in half in his first story.
Aslan could be forced to withdraw by a good person coming up against him, by his nature as described in Lewis’s books. Force from an entity of lesser power than himself, however, would not seem to work.
Look at it this way. If we take, in each universe, a list of most powerful to least powerful, Cthulhu comes in second in his. Aslan comes in first in his. Unless you devolve the argument into “but…but Lovecraft’s universe is just…just BETTER!”, then there’s no way past this. Aslan is omnipotent. It’s a power. Cthulhu can drive people nuts. Except, apparently, an omnipotent power. Oops.

No, what I’m saying is that Cthulhu was written the way he was, as “second in power” because otherwise his first story would have been his last.
“There once was a being named Cthulhu. He devoured reality. The end.”
It was a plot hook. Such as omnipotence. I”m not saying that Cthulhu is going to win because I like him the best. (My favorite on this list is Conan, which in and of itself is connected to the Cthulhu mythos.) I’m saying that I think his power is great enough to trump all others here. It’s my opinion, simply put. As Aslan being all powerful is yours. I’m not trying to convert you. Just putting my point out there.
People are voting against Cthulhu because they think he’s too powerful. You’re saying that Aslan could think this entire tournament into nothingness. I think you just bought him a few counter votes.
My vote goes for Cthulhu. It will be that way no matter who the opponent is. As I expect your to be for Aslan. May the best God-Being win.

Ahh, but I speak not of opinions, lawlz. I speak of reason. Whatever the rational for making Cthulhu second best, the fact remains that he is. As the lion is first.
I repeat: omnipotence is not a plot hook. It is a quality that the character possesses.
Of course we can say “This is my opinion, this guy’s awesome, I’m sticking to him”. But if we want this to have any semblance of point rather than a sheer popularity contest, we have to take their differing powers into account. It’s the same as we would do with, say, Conan versus Drizzt, or whoever else. We have to establish some means of comparison, otherwise the process is entirely nebulous.
Granted, this is getting a bit serious for something this geeky anyway, xD, but I’m at this point mostly arguing on behalf of at least doing it right if we’re going to do it.
I, for my part, am no better than anyone else for this. I fully intend to vote for Jaime Lannister, knowing he will lose, just b/c I think he’s a remarkable character and deserves an extra vote. But, reasonably, I will admit that he has no chance in heaven or earth of beating Cthulhu.
Do you see the distinction?

I see your distinction. It is you who fail to see mine. This is all I will say on the matter: Aslan is only omnipotent as long as Lewis is writing him. Here, he is goverened by the same laws as every other character. He is vunerable no matter who he is on his own world. Here, he is a god no greater or worse than any other god. Even Cthulhu. I don’t count any of these characters as THE god. They are characters. No matter what your feelings on the matter are that is the reality of this fantasy situation. Good does not always win in these battles – some of us are rooting for evil.
Your worries should not be Cthulhu right now as far as the finals go. Aslan has a few “god killers” to go through long before he fights the Great Old One. Until then, I have said what I will say.

Actually, I think you misunderstand me. xD, as per your rather unsubtle hints, you seem to grow weary of our little debate. Never fear, I shall be brief, merely alleviating any misconceptions. You are under no obligation to respond to me.
What I am trying to put across by repeating Aslan’s omnipotence is not that he is invincible in the competition but rather this: Cthulhu is not omnipotent. Not in his own universe. Aslan is omnipotent. One is a god who in his own world enough power to control everything. One is a god who does not have sufficient power to do that.
Therefore, as far as my humble line of reasoning goes, Aslan > Cthluhu. More powerful, more likely to win. That’s all.

Cthulhu is merely a Great Old one- a priest of the outer gods. Yes, he is godlike to our own human eyes but he isn’t anywhere near the big boys in the mythos while Aslan is Jesus. A more matched fight would be Aslan versus Nylarlahotep.

I was seriously NOT going to comment. But a few things here keep recurring and it bothers me:
1- It doesn’t matter who a character was based on. Be it Jesus, Chuck Norris, Willaim “Captain James T. Kirk” Shatner, or even Bruce Lee. It’s the character himself that’s involved. Leave Jesus out of this, that’s not an instant win.
2- The terms “All Powerful” and “Omnipotent” have no business being mentioned. This entire tournament is based on votes. A character’s personal power might be why you vote for them, but it’s the votes that win here. Not “My God is better than your God.” Any character here could have been taken out by Edward Cullen if enough pre-teen girls knew about this contest. In example I give you Harry Dresden. A wizard. Potent, powerful, capable of things mortals can only imagine. Yet and still he was shown his own internal organs up close by Conan who has not a stitch of “power.” Because Conan had the power that mattered – the ONLY power that matters in this contest – votes.
3- Resurrection requires being killed first, yes? Then I suppose everyone can stop mentioning it as a power herein, as these are fights TO THE DEATH. If you’ve come back to life, you were dead. If you were dead, you lost. End of story.
Not arguing which character is better than any other. Just pointing out some things people keep harping on. Carry on.

I’m not really sure how (or if) any of that responds to my point…so let me just say..
You seem fixated on the whole “omnipotent” thing. No one’s said Aslan is omnipotent in this tournament. It’s just a comparitor for relative power levels between two characters. One has n level of power in his world, one has x level. If n is greater than x, he with n is more likely to win. It’s the same as if we’re comparing an expert swordsman, best in his universe, and a pretty good swordsman, maybe competitive for number three in his. We are generally going to assume that the former is going to take the win. We can’t KNOW, of course, but that’s the only real point of posting in these comments sections, to bring things like this up.
I agree that this contest shall be mostly decided on fan votes: good observation. It does not, however, explain why, if that’s your conviction, you spent half a dozen posts trying to argue for Cthulhu’s ultimate victory in a rational, comparative manner.
I’m a bit confused, tbh.

Actually, you have said multiple times that Aslan is omnipotent. My point here is that such power does not equal win. And whether or not he is more powerful than Cthulhu at all is debatable. I certainly don’t think so.
My point for Cthulhu’s victory, ultimately, boils down to the fact that though some of these characters might indeed possess the power to at least lock him away. Not knowing he is at best “Immune” to death, they would go for the kill first and foremost. And get trounced when their attack fails. Madness, or tentacles, or huge-mendous foot stomping down. Any of the above.
What we can say for certain is that none of these characters has ever faced anything like Cthulhu before. He easily physically dwarfs any opponent here, and most of the swordsmen wouldn’t even be noticed. I simply think that a being such as Cthulhu would not view any of these creatures as a threat. Once wakened, he would simply do what he does best.
By the by, none of this is at all personal or me trying to be a perfectionist. I have simply read ALOT of Cthulhu Mythos is my day. Once I saw him on this bracket I just knew where my vote was going!

*Groan* Dude, please, do me the courtesy of reading my stuff with even half the care you devote to a giant squid-monster. I said Aslan was omnipotent in his OWN REALITY. That doesn’t correlate to invincibility or ultimate power IN THIS TOURNAMENT, just to a likelihood of greater relative power than calamari-boy. I’ve acknowledged that, numerous times. I’ve stated it about every way I can think of. And yet, every time I glance back here, there you are again, all “Cthulhu will win b/c he’s awesome. And no one can be unable to lose in a tournament”, ignoring every argument I make and just going on and on, setting up these straw man arguments.
It’s getting kind of annoying. The character in the Narnia books clearly has mystical powers sufficient to create and destroy worlds, move between them, yadda yadda. I have made the point that his power level is greater than Cthulhu’s. If you have a counterargument, let’s hear it. In all your exhaustive reading of Lovecraft’s texts, perhaps you found a reference to Cthulhu’s ability to survive a universe collapsing on him. Perhaps you noticed a remark documenting the fact that he should have beaten the “head honcho god” in his own reality, had not his powers been diffused elsewhere. Whatever. I don’t care. I’d accept any of these as legit arguments, admit I’m mistaken, and there we go. I’m not particularly fond of the Great Hello Kitty. I’d be willing to admit he’s going down if there was any reason to think so. But I need an actual argument first, not this waffling. The only one you’ve made is that this is a fight to the death. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t remember that being mentioned. A defeat should be perfectly sufficient.

Followup: In fact, as I recall, the guys in charge themselves wrote Aslan as winning despite getting killed in their little prediction of the Eragon/Aslan match. This really seems to be just “who can get rid of the other guy so he don’t get up again”.

I don’t ever recall reading that Aslan could destroy an entire universe. Especially one that isn’t his. Ever. The world of Narnia? Maybe. But a universe? I doubt it. But I digress.
My argument for Cthulhu winning has never been “He Am Awsome.” My argument, against Aslan specifically, was that similar “all-powerful” and “omnipotent” supposedly could not kill him either. He is of a God, of that make no mistake, his parentage comprising two other gods that gave him birth. He, too, possesses the ability to travel between worlds as was mentioned mumerous times in Lovecraft’s works.
He is not a Giant Squid or Octopus as you folks are so quick to lobby about. In fact, the best description of him was that he “yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature; A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque scaly body with rudimentary wings.”
It is impossible to compare the power levels of two fictional characters from two wholly different fictional worlds. Whether or not Aslan can wipe out Narnia is of no consequence, becuase there is no way to prove or disprove his power would have any affect on Cthulhu at all. His “omnipotence” over a world he created would be the same as mine over something I built with legos when I was 5. Cthulhu is similarly powerful in his way, as he can easily wipe out our world; a theme which runs through all the Cthulhu Mythos stories involving him. Did he create this world? No. But that does not make him less powerful for it. It’s mever stated the he can create worlds, but that means little. Just because I didn’t cook the steak I just ate doesn’t mean I can’t do it. Cthulhu’s powers are never fully defined. But this is because he is dormant in the stories he is portrayed in. Dormant, but still able to affect our world through dreams or his so-called “Star-Spawn.” Even asleep, he is contstantly displayed as a hideous danger to life on our world.
Aslan has never faced A God from a whole other Universe before that I know of. There is no possible way of telling how or even if his powers would work in such a confrontation. Same with Cthulhu. None. So saying that he is “more powerful” or that Cthulhu is “Second best” is conjecture on your part as Cthulhu is never fully defined. Gods require believers, and both have that. But neither would believe in the other so maybe neither would be able to use their powers. But in this case, as I have stated, Cthulhu does dwarf the kitty. By alot.
As I was attempting to point out at the end of my last reply, this is not personal for me. I’m simply voting for the character I like best. Which is the point here. I’m not trying to antagonize you believe it or not. But I will never say flat out that Aslan or Cthulhu is more powerful than the other. I have never claimed Cthulhu was undefeatble, (He cannot die, but that’s not to say there aren’t ways to drive him off) nor will I ever believe that Aslan is. For the record, in Lovecraft’s works it is never stated why Cthulhu is dormant to my knowledge. It is given as a possible, but so is hibernation. The former situation might never have happened. So his supposedly “being vunerable to such a power” might be inaccurate.
My long, rambling point? Just because Aslan created a world doesn’t make him more powerful, as you can’t compare the two to begin with. Do I think Cthulhu is more powerful? I couldn’t give a damn. I still think he’s going to pick almost every other competitor in this thing from his tentacles. I don’t care what anyone here thinks of him and I never did. I didn’t write the guy, I just enjoy the stories.
We’re all fans here. Let’s keep it civil.